Transversal Themes

By youth, for youth ...

Welcome to the UNESCO Youth Programme!

Young women and men have got the creativity, the potential and the capacity to make change happen – for themselves, for their societies, and for the rest of the world. UNESCO’s work with and for youth is committed to empowering young women and men and helping them to work together to drive social innovation and change, participate fully in the development of their societies, eradicate poverty and inequality, and foster a culture of peace.

Youth are not just beneficiaries of this work – they are essential actors in finding solutions to the issues faced by young people in the world today. Their energy and leadership has been demonstrated across the world, and they must be fully engaged in social development themselves and supported in this work by their societies.

As such, the UNESCO Youth Programme works to create an enabling environment in which this goal can be achieved, by bringing youth voices to the fore and encouraging young people to come together to take action.

The United Nations defines ‘youth’ as persons between the ages of 15 and 24. However, we know that the experience of being young can vary enormously across the world, and that ‘youth’ is often a fluid and changing category. As such, context is always an important guide in UNESCO’s definition of youth on specific occasions, and this definition is flexible and can vary between countries and regions.